By Craig Smith

TWO GLENROTHES stores have had their off-sales licences suspended after falling foul of Fife Police’s test purchasing scheme.

Members of the central Fife divisional licensing board unanimously agreed to suspend the licences at the Collydean Local shop in Piper Drive and at the Scottish Co-op store in the Cadham Centre for four and three months respectively at a meeting in Kirkcaldy yesterday.

Staff at both premises twice sold alcohol to 16-year-old volunteers in July, failing to ask for appropriate identification each time. As a result, Chief Constable Peter Wilson wrote to the board asking members to suspend the licences on the grounds that the holders were not fit and proper people to hold such responsibility.

The board heard that the Collydean Local firstly failed on the evening of Saturday, July 1, when a 16-year-old test purchaser successfully purchased a bottle of cider. That was followed up 10 days later when a young volunteer bought an alcopop unchallenged, prompting the formal complaint to be put forward by police.

On both occasions, the circumstances were aggravated by the fact that the employees were themselves under 18 and did not ask to be supervised by the licence holder or adult member of staff, as is required by law. Indeed, it was discovered that the first employee was just 15 at the time.

Solicitor George Harper, speaking on behalf of licence holder Zahid Mukhtar (33), said his client had given full training on underage sales to staff.

Revealing the shop had passed a third police test later that month, Mr Harper read out excerpts of statements made by both employees suggesting there may have been mitigating factors for their actions.

“The 15-year-old employee indicated he did not follow procedures, he was tired and it was at the end of his shift,” he said. “On the second occasion, the employee was leaving his job at the end of the day and it was his last ever shift in the shop—reasons for him not to feel too bothered about following procedures.

“Mr Mukhtar did take corrective action on the day after the first event and asked all staff to sign a declaration that they understood the procedures in place.”

Despite Mr Harper’s plea that one month’s suspension alone would cost his client between £8000 and £10,000, councillors decided to suspend the licence for four months in total.

At the Scottish Co-op in Cadham, which has a joint licence held by Alldays Stores Ltd and manageress Pamela Greig (35), a test purchaser bought a bottle of cider on July 1 and, despite passing a further test on July 11, plain-clothed officers patrolling the area on July 28 spotted a 16-year-old handing over a carrier bag to another youth outside the shop. It was later found the bag contained an alcopop bottle and a six-pack of lager.

A solicitor for the Co-op Group highlighted the extensive measures it had taken to reinforce its underage policy to employees, including universal signage, till prompts, internal test purchasing and a refusal register, completed manually and electronically each time a sale is refused.

Showing the firm’s training video to councillors, the solicitor said the employees in question had passed various tests, undertaken refresher training and had refused sales on numerous occasions in the past.

“The Co-op Group has gone to great lengths to devise a system and work with others with a common aim, to eliminate totally sales to minors,” he said. “The group shares police concerns that these incidents have happened and is committed to making sure these sales are not repeated.

“But the group is acutely aware of their legal obligations and I would argue there isn’t much more the Group could have done to prevent this. It boils down to a momentary lack of judgment on the part of the two sales assistants involved and it appears these sales have been made by virtue of human error.”

He added that the employee in the first incident had since resigned.

Speaking on behalf of the chief constable, Susan Mackessack concluded any regulations that were in place had failed to do their job.

Board members suspended the joint licence for three months, making it the fifth such suspension since the pilot scheme was introduced in June.